A Pioneer's Tale

Denise Arcand McClintic ’76 was a member of the first class of girls at Hotchkiss, and it transformed her life.

Read the Fall 2024/Winter 2025 Hotchkiss Magazine

By Eliott Grover

“Hotchkiss is on the threshold of great change,” an article began in the May 1974 issue of The Record. “In September of 1974, the second chapter of the School’s history will begin.” The following autumn, Hotchkiss welcomed its first class of female students.

For Denise Arcand McClintic ’76, one of the 89 young women who started school that September day 50 years ago, it was the beginning of an equally transformative journey. “Hotchkiss is part of the fabric of my life,” says McClintic. “Its threads have been woven into me.”

McClintic grew up in Middlebury, CT, in a family that prioritized education. She attended parochial school through eighth grade before starting ninth grade as a day student at Westover School. She loved her two years there, earning high marks while learning how to play soccer. One weekend during the spring of her sophomore year, she boarded a bus with a group of classmates and headed north.

An hour later, they arrived at Hotchkiss for a dance. McClintic didn’t know much about the School at that point, but she knew it had a stellar academic reputation. When someone mentioned that Hotchkiss was becoming coeducational, her wheels immediately began to turn. A few weeks later, after applying for admission, she was back on campus.

“Driving to the interview with my mom, it was a beautiful spring day and we were giddy with delight,” McClintic recalls. “It was one of my favorite days with her and continues to be a very special memory.” She was accepted shortly thereafter.

Scholarships Provide Path to Rigorous Academic Experiences

While her parents could pay part of the tuition, financial aid made it possible for her to attend Hotchkiss. McClintic received the Charles Fleischmann ’15 Memorial Scholarship and the Watson Scholarship. Although she understood the significance of being among the first female students, her excitement was focused on the opportunities awaiting her in Lakeville. From the moment she arrived on campus, she felt as though she belonged.

“The boys were very welcoming,” McClintic says. “I found it really stimulating that even in the classroom there was a whole different perspective. I was coming from an all-girls school. It really made the experience richer. There was great support. I can remember the boys attending our sports games and cheering us on.”

McClintic was the first girls’ soccer captain in School history in addition to pursuing a number of extracurricular activities. As a member of the Social Committee, she helped plan dances. She also played guitar and sang, performing folk songs with fellow musicians at a number of events.

While McClintic’s transition to life at Hotchkiss was a smooth one, the rigorous academic standards thrust her into uncharted waters. “I had to refine my learning skills,” she says. “It was the first time I didn’t get the highest marks. It wasn’t necessarily a comeuppance, but I had to readjust, so it made me a keener student.”

McClintic has quick praise for the faculty members whose egalitarian approach to the School’s newest students facilitated this growth. “Academically, the girls were treated the same as the boys,” she says. “That was really important. There were high standards for everyone.”

In the English classroom, McClintic developed a lifelong appreciation for language. She learned to become a more concise and persuasive writer, building a robust vocabulary in the process. An avid New York Times crossword puzzler, she often surprises herself with her ability to crack tough clues. “I’ll wonder, how do I know that word?” McClintic says. “And then I think back, ‘Well I must have learned it from the broad body of literature I read at Hotchkiss.’”

It wasn’t just her teachers who kept her on her toes. McClintic has fond memories of bantering with her peers or having interesting academic discussions outside of class. “The repartee in the Dining Hall was always great fun. Everybody was very quick-witted,” she says. “You really had to up your game to be there. It was wonderful to be intellectually challenged. My favorite memory is just the intellect and the caliber of the student body.”

Reconnecting at Pioneer Reunion

This September, McClintic returned to campus with many of her fellow Pioneers—the 89 girls who changed Hotchkiss forever—as part of the School’s year-long commemoration of 50 years of coeducation at Hotchkiss. It was a special reunion that presented these trailblazing alumnae with an opportunity to reminisce and reconnect.

“I’m sorry that I lost touch with so many classmates, both boys and girls, after graduation,” McClintic says. “We didn’t have cell phones. We didn’t have the internet. I can recall writing a letter to a friend to say, ‘I’ll call you on such-and-such a date from this pay phone.’ The connectivity that’s so important for a community can’t be overestimated. That’s something today’s students can carry throughout their lives. I don’t want to use the word ‘regret,’ but it was a missed opportunity not to stay connected because we didn’t have the tools to do so.”

Whatever gaps may have formed in their correspondences as they ventured into the world, McClintic and her classmates have consistently made the most of opportunities to return to campus. She has attended almost every reunion. “My heart quickens as I drive up to the four corners crossroads,” McClintic says, noting the nostalgia that accompanies every visit to Lakeville. “There was so much positive energy there. I remember it as a formative experience for me. It really informed my future career and life in many ways.”

Hotchkiss Guides Career Path of Philanthropy and Education

After graduating from Hotchkiss, McClintic matriculated at Tufts University where she studied anthropology and political science. After her father inquired how she planned to make a living as an anthropology major, she stayed in the Boston area and earned her law degree at Suffolk University before receiving a second graduate degree in tax law at Boston University.

“I went to law school kind of as a backstop,” McClintic says. “I loved it, but I never really practiced law. That really gets back to the fact that Hotchkiss impacted my career choices. It took me down the philanthropy and education path.”

McClintic has worked in nonprofit fundraising and has served as the director of development for Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire and Phoenix Country Day School in Arizona, where she has lived since 1998. More recently, she worked in wealth management as a philanthropic specialist, helping individuals identify and execute their charitable giving interests.

“Being a fundraiser for an educational institution, I felt as though I was giving back because I understood what I had received as a scholarship student at Hotchkiss,” McClintic says. “And then with philanthropic advising, I felt that I was having an even larger impact being able to reach so many more people and so many more charitable organizations.”

Giving Back to Hotchkiss

As far as making an impact at the organization that remains closest to her heart, McClintic has demonstrated her appreciation for Hotchkiss by giving her time and financial support over the years. She has served as a Class Agent and Reunion Committee member and has regularly contributed to The Hotchkiss Fund. In 2010, McClintic joined the Town Hill Society, which recognizes individuals who have made Hotchkiss part of their estate plans.

For McClintic, the 50th anniversary has given her occasion to reflect on her time in Lakeville, two years that shaped the rest of her life. “It was a fabulous experience,” she says. “Looking back, I feel even more fortunate now than I did walking onto campus that first day. Hotchkiss had a limited number of female students that they could admit that first year. I am so enduringly grateful that I was one of them.”

Through her dedication to philanthropy and education, McClintic has carried forward the values she learned at Hotchkiss, ensuring that future generations of students can benefit from the same transformative experience she did. “It’s part and parcel,” McClintic says of her own philanthropic activities. “It’s important that I feel connected and give back so that others can have the same opportunity.”

As part of the 50th anniversary of coeducation at Hotchkiss, a documentary is in the works to commemorate this momentous time in the School’s history. McClintic was interviewed for the film and looks forward to its release at the Gala Weekend on May 2-4, 2025. “I will enjoy hearing from the other Pioneers who helped forge those first few defining years that laid the foundation for the many female students to come,” she says. “Each of us in our own way wove our individual threads of experience into the rich tapestry that is today’s Hotchkiss.”